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1.4.2-Sarah1281
Brick!Club 4.1.2 First Sketch of Two Unprepossessing Figures When I see the word ‘unprepossessing’ I always think of Popular from Wicked. The Thenardiers certainly don’t have the best introduction, do they? The first thing this translation says about them is that they “belonged to that bastard class composed of coarse people.” That’s just not very nice to dismiss a whole class as, especially since they’re not even all that bad at this point compared to later. Before they took in Cosette, were they really hurting anyone? And apprently it is a BIG PROBLEM for ‘coarse people’ to be successful or intelligent people to have problems. That sounds sort of counter to Valjean’s whole coarse person transformation. Thenardier would apparently have been very difficult for a physiognomist to have worked with which isn’t surprising given the validity of such things. So Thenardier wants to claim he was a solider. Seems harmless enough and it is an interesting inn name. He is apparently a Jack of all trads but not particularly good at anything so he really should specialize. And apparently the common phrase ‘Jack of all trades’ is only half of that saying anyway, the rest is ‘master of none.’ Even though we use it as a compliment today to mean someone is highly skilled in a lot of areas, it’s supposed to mean that they’re the kind of person who changed their major eight times in college and so could tell you a bit about statistics, art history, logic, ect but not as well as anyone who had stuck with these courses. I wonder how it was that the Thendardiers learned to read and refuse to judge Madame Thenardier on her reading taste because at least she was reading books. That’s more than most other people in this time period can claim. Apparently her romanticism explains why she doesn’t have a very accurate view of her husband at this point and that’s unfortunate but she seems even worse than he does at this point. I don’t really like the name Eponine but I love the name Azelma (I don’t like Euphrasie either). I don’t see a problem giving your kids unusual names (though it may lead to them being picked on when they are young, literally everything ever can lead to that so I don’t think that should deter you and maybe give them a nickname if you think it will be such a big problem) but I just want them to sound nice. An unusual name that sounds ridiculous is ridiculous but if it’s obscure and nice than why not? I recently met a baby whose name was London and her older sister whose name was Diamond and I have difficulty accepting that those are actual names but those are different than actual names that are a bit out there and found in romance novels, I think. Commentary Pilferingapples The whole “and then romance novels and it was the worst thing EVER” attitude seems just a BIT overdone in these chapters? Like, I’d almost accuse Hugo of being sarcastic, blaming so much of The Thenardiess’ attitudes on these novels. Then again, I’ve heard type designers go on about Comic Sans, so I’m not at all sure what’s hyperbole here and what’s deeply offended professional standards. Kingedmundsroyalmurder (reply to Pilferingapples) Oh God, it would be so like Hugo to take time out of his book on injustice and misery and go on a tangent about how romance novels are killing modern literature you guys!